YSU Sports

Detroit outscores Penguins, 90-80

YOUNGSTOWN -- Jaleel Hogan stands 6-foot-7 and weighs 260 pounds.

The Detroit junior forward looks more like an offensive lineman than Detroit Mercy's starting forward.

At one point Saturday, he jumped up, lifted his massive frame and found a way to emphatically display a one-handed dunk just over the rim.

"I try to give energy to my team," Hogan said. "They expect me to come out and be the energy-giver, trying to dunk it as hard as I can to get them guys going."

Hogan and his teammates found that spark to start the second half of Saturday's game at the Beeghly Center in a dominant 90-80 victory over host Youngstown State.

Detroit (6-18, 4-8 Horizon League) outscored YSU (10-15, 4-8) 23-6 to start the second half, scoring the first 12 points of the final 20 minutes.

The Titans remembered Thursday's throttling at Cleveland State, 90-73.

"We just wanted to set a tone and get the win so we could get back on the right track," said Hogan, who had 22 points and 12 rebounds.

The early second-half run left the Titans ahead 61-41 after Josh McFolley's lay-up with 14:42 remaining. He had 18 points.

"For us, everything is predicated off our ability to make stops on the defensive end of the floor," Detroit coach Bacari Alexander said. "One of the things that we were able to do on this particular night is get those clean rebounds and limit YSU to one shot on the goal during that stanza. As a result, we were able to get some transition opportunities for ourselves. When we have time and space, we're pretty good in those situations."

On the other hand, YSU coach Jerry Slocum saw his team miss its first three shots, including a lay-up to start the second half.

The Penguins didn't score until Braun Hartfield, who had 18 points, made a jumper with 17:16 remaining. By then, Detroit led 50-37.

YSU shot 16 of 39 from the floor and 3 of 12 from 3 in the second half.

"Bad offense led to bad defense," Slocum said.

Detroit capitalized by shooting 60 percent from the floor (18 of 30) and 50 percent from 3 (5 of 10).

"Defense is about pride and heart," Slocum said. "I just thought our effort and our rotations wasn't good. I thought our offensive glass, rebounding the basketball wasn't very good."

Detroit swept the season series from YSU, which lost 87-71 Jan. 16 in Detroit.

"We were very fortunate that they missed shots that they normally make," Alexander said. "Cameron Morse is a terrific talent as well as (Francisco) Santiago and others. Some nights shots just don't fall for teams. What it can do in turn is fuel transition opportunities for us of that nature, which is what you saw tonight.

"I don't know if it's so much us having some secret elixir against the Penguins as much as them missing shots on goal, which fueled our transition attack."

Corey Allen led Detroit with 27 points.

Morse had 20 to pace YSU, while Devin Haygood had 14. Santiago added 12.

But the night belonged to Hogan, who was 9 of 13 from the floor.

"The lion's share of his 22 points was not scored on post moves by themselves," Alexander said. "I thought he did a particularly decent job on the glass tonight for stickbacks and lay-ins."

Detroit heads home for a four-game homestand starting Friday against rival Oakland.

YSU starts a two-game road trip beginning Thursday at UIC.